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With a delay of one hour we landed in Delhi at 4 AM and picked up our luggage. We had an Air India flight from Delhi to Chennai. Air India took care of us in a very efficient way. So soon we checked in, luggage dropped and ready at the gate. Our flight left around 7 AM. Indian breakfast :), pick up luggage, taxi to rickshaw location. And finally, after little over 48 hours of travel time, our adventure could start.

At the garage we were welcomed by the friendly Princely who gave us instructions to stay save and handed over the papers and keys, making us the proud owners of 2, at first sight, well maintained rickshaws. After some test driving around the block for the basic rickshaw driving skills, we drove off, into the Indian jungle city of Chennai, one of Indias largests cities with almost 5 million people. All those 5 million people were also driving in the streets when we were heading for the city. Or so it seems.

After 2 kilometers we had our first breakdown. Helpful people immediately started opening up our engine unscrewing and re-screwing parts, until the problem was found. The spark plug was broken. Not a spark plug, but the spark plug. Rickshaws drive on one cylinder.

We get a lot of enthusiastic smiles, comments, people waving. Already a dozen times people were filming us or took pictures. Four tourists driving the rickshaws themselves seems to be a remarkable view. If we tell them we are heading for Delhi, they simply don’t understand.

The remainder of the day we filled with finding a hotel, groceries and dinner in the hotel, because Erik was too lazy to go anywhere else.